Maxis announces new SimCity for 2013

Maxis will finally be creating a new entry in the popular SimCity franchise in …

A piece of concept art from the upcoming SimCity shows the 3D, "tactile" feel the team is shooting for.

Image courtesy of Maxis

"The rumors are true. SimCity is back." So said Maxis senior VP Lucy Bradshaw by way of announcing a new PC title in the seminal city-building series for a 2013 release.

During a Game Developers Conference presentation to gathered press, Bradshaw noted its been roughly ten years since Maxis last released a core SimCity title, and that the phones in many people's pockets now have the same power as the machines that ran SimCity 4 back then. The new SimCity will take advantage of advances in computer power to be the first truly 3D entry in the series. "This is like an entirely new playground for us, and we're going to take advantage of it," she said.

New visual features like dust clouds that kick up when a building is dropped will provide what Bradshaw calls "tactility and physicality" to playing the game, even during simple action like zoning. Not only that, but Bradshaw promised the new game will finally feature the "curvy roads" that series fans have been demanding for ages.

Bradshaw emphasized that the next SimCity (which she was careful not to call SimCity 5) will also add new global leaderboard competitions to the game, letting players strive to rank the highest on city attributes both positive (greenest, fittest, most educated) and negative (most depressed, slothful, dirtiest).

Despite promised deeper simulation features in the next SimCity, Bradshaw said the team was trying to make avoid making the game too complex. The aim is for a "what you see is what we sim" system that gives direct, visual feedback for everything you need to know about your city. "You should be able to read your city like a set of tea leaves," she said.

Bradhaw also promised the simulation would also have a game-like, playful side. "You never know when a giant lizard will show up," she said.

The official trailer for the newly announced game (note that the footage is explicitly not meant to represent actual gameplay)

Polluting the next SimCity over

The new SimCity will also allow players to affect other connected players in the same virtual region with decisions that they make in their own city, Bradshaw said. Players will be able to cooperate by connecting cities together for regional upgrades, or be a more negative presence by spewing out pollution that will drift to nearby towns, for instance.

"We're talking about a SimCity where the resources are finite," Bradshaw said, "where you're going to be struggling with some of the decisions that people are faced with today, where technology and advances can ultimately have global impact."

To emphasize that point, publisher EA had An Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim speak at the announcement event. Aside from the scientific and political barriers to slowing and reversing global climate change trends, Guggenheim said, there is also a psychological barrier that leads people to disconnect from awareness of the problem and continue to simply live their life as they did before they knew about it.

Playing SimCity can help people avoid that disconnect, though, Guggenheim said, since they're being directly and consistently confronted with the negative effects of, say, building a cheap and easy coal power plant instead of a more renewable and clean energy source. "Before you know it you have smog in your city, and your water table is getting dirty and the people who live there are getting people are getting ill," he said.

112 Reader Comments

I haven't been this excited for a new game teaser in years. Not so sure that they should enter the realm of PC climate change though since this I don't want to hear leftist moralizing in my videogames, things that exist to distract me from all the bullshit in society.

I haven't been this excited for a new game teaser in years. Not so sure that they should enter the realm of PC climate change though since this I don't want to hear leftist moralizing in my videogames, things that exist to distract me from all the bullshit in society.

SimCity has always strived to be as realistic as technology and usability permit. Modeling the very real effects of pollution is entirely in keeping with the series.

I haven't been this excited for a new game teaser in years. Not so sure that they should enter the realm of PC climate change though since this I don't want to hear leftist moralizing in my videogames, things that exist to distract me from all the bullshit in society.

The game is a simulation. Simulations try to approximate reality. There are real effects of pollution on the world. Very real, despite what you may hear on TV 'News.'

@ahugeblunt Pollution and its effect in SimCity is not new at all. Science is not "left" nor "right". This just tries to simulate a further aspect of pollutions, especially with the new multiplayer thing. There has always been "moralizing" message in this game = education is good, clean environment is good, more parks is good, more libraries is good, etc. Actually, most games have moralizing values. Most art forms, in fact. In case you havent' notice.

On another note, I sincerely hope they will have a good and viable single player offline option.

I really looking forward to this the Cities XL games are good but they are not Simcity my only fear is i hope all the buildings are not just Prefabs i want some randomness to the game. Im really interesting this Tittle from a Gamer stand point and a Developmental stand point i really want to see what they can come up with; 9 years of updated hardware and tech im expecting great things. Its good to see Maxis moving back to its roots, now where is my Sim Ants.

Count me in as a definite pre-order for this title. Played the hell out of the earlier ones, but didn't really heart 4 (too much "role playing" mixed in with the simulation), so hopefully this will be a "back to form" reboot style effort. And "yes please!" to modern graphics.

I hope, too, that the simulation is, under the hood, at least sophisticated enough to separate "desires" from "actions" -- and I'll give an example. I attempted quite a few times to make cities in earlier titles that simply had no surface roads (for example) but no-one lived more than a block from a subway line. The citizens were inevitably unhappy that they couldn't "drive" -- at least that's how the game reported it. But "driving" is not the desire, surely? The desire -- unless I'm wrong -- is to get where you're going quickly and safely in all weather.

Perhaps take a leaf from the indy developer of "Democracy 2". Sure you could outlaw religious schools and have a expensive (and thus thoroughly professional) police force as policy directions in that game. And this made most people happy most of the time. But there was a small minority that these policies made very, very unhappy, and permanently so.

That seems more realistic to me than "everyone wants X" where "X" is a behaviour rather than an outcome.

I hope, too, that the simulation is, under the hood, at least sophisticated enough to separate "desires" from "actions" -- and I'll give an example. I attempted quite a few times to make cities in earlier titles that simply had no surface roads (for example) but no-one lived more than a block from a subway line. The citizens were inevitably unhappy that they couldn't "drive" -- at least that's how the game reported it. But "driving" is not the desire, surely? The desire -- unless I'm wrong -- is to get where you're going quickly and safely in all weather.

I loved simcity 4, but I have to agree, simcity has always encouraged the development of sprawl, suburbia vs. traditional city center, then industrial (fringed by the ubiquitous 'rough' neighborhood). I always had to place police stations all around the industrial areas or else crime would get out of control...what are all those criminals doing there anyway? Wouldn't they rather rob from the rich suburbanites?

The graphics sure look pretty, but my only hope is that they allow plugin developers deep integration. The great thing about Simcity 4 was that the default game was ok, but one could make it completely awesome with plugins (complete with slum and drug infested neighborhood upgrades). I also downloaded all the farming plugins and made an agricultural utopia. Don't even get me started on the excellent RAIL mods...

OH...and since this is Maxis returning to the good'ol days, can we assume there will be a simultaneous MAC OSX release?

I loved simcity 4, but I have to agree, simcity has always encouraged the development of sprawl, suburbia vs. traditional city center, then industrial (fringed by the ubiquitous 'rough' neighborhood). I always had to place police stations all around the industrial areas or else crime would get out of control...what are all those criminals doing there anyway? Wouldn't they rather rob from the rich suburbanites?

The graphics sure look pretty, but my only hope is that they allow plugin developers deep integration. The great thing about Simcity 4 was that the default game was ok, but one could make it completely awesome with plugins (complete with slum and drug infested neighborhood upgrades). I also downloaded all the farming plugins and made an agricultural utopia. Don't even get me started on the excellent RAIL mods...

OH...and since this is Maxis returning to the good'ol days, can we assume there will be a simultaneous MAC OSX release?

Oh boy, I cannot wait for Sim City Societies 2. You know, the series that tried to make something complex like building a working city accessible to children. Sim City died after 4, and this new entry will not revive it based on the concept art/trailer.

I haven't been this excited for a new game teaser in years. Not so sure that they should enter the realm of PC climate change though since this I don't want to hear leftist moralizing in my videogames, things that exist to distract me from all the bullshit in society.

I know 10 years is a long time, but have you forgot that SimCity has ALWAYS had pollution..

In fact, pollution is a REAL LIFE issue. Which is probably why you don't see coal fired power plants in town and city centers.

Please keep your political bias out of this topic, it's not warranted or even justified. It doesn't even have a basis for the game franchise or real life situations.

Evangelise elsewhere, thank you.

On a lighter note, I'm looking forward to building a green recycling self sufficient city based on high tech. Perhaps I could offshore my pollution to your industrialised city with heavy industry and chemical plants slap bang in the middle of your high rise low quality low life expectency high crime ridden city. (hopes you can network online) - No, I'm serious.

So wait a second; the trailer isn't representative of actual gameplay? In what sense? The trailer /shows/ the appearance of gameplay, so if the game doesn't look like it does in the trailer, then I won't even consider trying a demo, let alone playing it.

Please keep your political bias out of this topic, it's not warranted or even justified. It doesn't even have a basis for the game franchise or real life situations.

Evangelise elsewhere, thank you.

On a lighter note, I'm looking forward to building a green recycling self sufficient city based on high tech. Perhaps I could offshore my pollution to your industrialised city with heavy industry and chemical plants slap bang in the middle of your high rise low quality low life expectency high crime ridden city. (hopes you can network online) - No, I'm serious.

Yeah, none of those things characterize any of the great cities of the real world, but they're certainly leftie fantasies of perfection. Based on the explicit identification of "greenest, fittest, most educated" as the features that would get you the best ranking, the good Mr. Blunt nailed it, I'm afraid.

SimCity used to be about having fun by making your citizens *happy* -- I'm sure those things were contributing elements somewhere in the mix, but by trumpeting a focus on those inescapably politicized "values" Guggenheim was clearly pandering to folks like you. And apparently it worked.

I do hope there are no bloody water pipes in this one (or, perhaps, that they make it interesting by allowing you to create & run a more realistic sewage/water system rather than just playing join-the-dots).

I stopped playing this franchise when it became too complicated to play the game. Watching so many things, water pipes, and other issues just plagued the game from being fun to a visual representation of a Quikbooks accounting page.

I don't imagine this version's looking to simplify things for its players, but instead, just adds additional layers of complexity.

A shame. What set this game from the others was its casual mode of playing.

I assume curvy roads means just that - not confined to the grid system at all except for straight runs.

Check out Cities XL for another game that doesn't restrict roads to grid patterns, and will also align buildings along the road to look good (rather than having staircasing between the road and the grid-aligned buildings).

I played a lot of the original Sim City and Sim City 2000, but never really had time for 3000 and 4000, so I'm hoping to get some time on this one when it comes out - if it is any good.

Also a casual mode that doesn't require so much micromanagement (sewerage, subways, bus routes, types of crops grown in farms, colour of sims socks, etc) would be nice to have.

I hope it comes with lots of modern buildings - Bhuj, Shard, etc - to use in your cities.

I haven't been this excited for a new game teaser in years. Not so sure that they should enter the realm of PC climate change though since this I don't want to hear leftist moralizing in my videogames, things that exist to distract me from all the bullshit in society.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.